Trying to convince your company to  let you telecommute, but having a hard time because you work for a small company that hasn’t figured out the technical details yet?

Small businesses don’t have the army of IT folks to figure out how to create a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and support a remote access software solution. These details can be complicated and need to be done right - to protect the company from potential security threats. So it may be easier for your company to just say ‘no’ than to do the extra work. It’s not that they don’t want to support your work/life balance, or the environment, or save their own money by having you work from home. It’s just that it’s too complicated.

But if you read my last blog post, I found an article that describes some alternatives to make the external access a bit easier. So try taking this article to your head of IT and see if he can use the information to come up with a solution. Once you get past that hurdle, perhaps your boss will be more open to the telecommuting conversation.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms

Telecommuting used to only be an easy solution for the big companies - those with enormous IT organizations that could easily build an entire service for the employees to remotely (and securely) access the company intranet. But now, there’s more need than ever for small businesses to offer telecommuting. However, the question is, how?

Small businesses have the same need as large companies to offer the benefits of telecommuting to their staff to stay competitive, and have the same need to be able to access their employees during non-work hours for emergency situations. But the challenge of working out all those technical details to allow staff access to the small business’s network can be pretty daunting.

Fortunately I just came across an article in Small Business Computing.com that goes into some of that technical nitty-gritty and gives a few details on new solutions that can help you easily make the leap.

So take a read and see if any ideas in the article might just help you quickly take those next steps. Don’t let a small size stop you from competing with the big guys!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, small business, work from home, telecommuting advice

Apparently there are many people who want to telecommute but are afraid of losing the opportunity for promotions if they do. But if you know the right methods and techniques to maintain your visibility, you can benefit from all the advantages of telecommuting without worry about any downsides.

An interesting article in US News and World Report comments on a survey by Steelcase that although half of office workers are able to telecommute, less than a third do for fear that their manager wants them in the office and they need to be there to be noticed.

There are many techniques that will help keep you in your boss’s virtual line of sight. Schedule more frequent 1-on-1 meetings with him, by phone. Send him a weekly status update by email. Do the same with your key co-workers too. Simple actions like this can combat the out-of-sight-out-of-mind phenomenon. If you’re really concerned, try telecommuting just 1 day/week first, then increase it as you feel more confident.

Read my other blog posts for many more helpful suggestions!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms

As if there aren’t enough challenges to a successful telecommuting experience, here’s another one to worry about!

I just read an article in the New York Times today about how Time Warner Cable is experimenting in some towns with limits on their internet service.

I’d heard buzz about this before but this is the first time I’ve come across it in practice. The idea is that most people only use a limited amount of bandwidth on their internet but there’s a few users who are network hogs and use huge amount of bandwidth for downloading videos, movies, etc. Rather than making everyone pay the same, the idea is if you want to go over the limit your ISP (Internet Service Provider) sets, you pay extra.

In principle, I understand the approach of paying more if you use more. However this may be yet another roadblock for telecommuters. As telecommuters, we are likely to be heavy internet users because we’re very actively working all day, transferring large files, etc. So now we may have increased internet access rates to look forward to in the future.

But hang in there. It’s not over until the fat lady sings. ISPs are just starting to play with this model, so it will probably be some time until they go mainstream with it. And even then, this may hit your employer’s pocket and not yours if you’re lucky enough to work for a company that pays for, or reimburses you for, your ISP charges.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms

When you telecommute, you are very reliant on your technology. Your laptop and phone are your lifeline to getting your job done. So what happens when the lights - and the rest of your power - go out?

When you’re in the office, chances are they have backup generators. But I, for one, don’t have one of these lying around in my house. If I lose power, I can work on my laptop until the battery gives up. But that’s it.

And what about phone meetings? If all you have are electric phones - cordless phones - you’re in trouble. Thanks to an article in Information Week, where the author suggests keeping an old-fashioned corded phone around the house for just such an emergency. Wow - sometimes old-fashioned low-tech beats high-tech!

A few more suggestions are:

• Keep your laptop plugged in when you work at home - so your battery is always fully charged.
• Keep a spare laptop battery that you can swap out if needed - and keep that plugged in and fully charged.
• Keep a written/printed list of your co-workers’ phone #s - so you can reach them by phone even if your laptop battery is dead.

Any other ideas? Please post a comment and add them for other readers!

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting, work from home, work at home moms

I just read an article in Businessweek about how a lot of British workers want to telecommute but their managers, in general, are reluctant. But one part made me mad. They quoted a survey which seemed to support manager concerns about productivity of telecommuters. They said:

Almost half (46 per cent) of home workers confessed to spending over an hour of every working day on non-work activities—with ‘personal internet use’ and paying bills being the biggest guilty pleasures. One in 10 home workers even confessed to watching TV and taking a nap on work time.

‘Multitasking’ was also popular with WFHers - almost half (42 per cent) of female home workers said they regularly do cleaning or laundry during the workday—and almost a third of men say they use work time to prepare meals or keep fit.

However, there’s two major problems with looking at these results in a vacuum:

1. They fail to mention (if they even surveyed them at all) how many workers who come into the office spend over an hour per day on ‘personal internet use’ or ‘multitasking’.
2. They don’t factor in that most people who work from home end up working more hours, because they’re not wasting time commuting, and they often take shorter lunches since they’re on their own. So telecommuters’ workdays are typically a little longer and taking a break is not unreasonable.

I actually wrote an article in my blog just recently on this exact topic - about how to fairly fit in personal activities during your workday if you telecommute.

Remember, it’s not about how you spend every waking minute. It’s about whether you fairly put in your time and how much (and at what quality) work you get done.

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting advice, work from home, work at home moms

So you can telecommute, but what you’d really prefer to be doing is not working at all and enjoying the great outdoors in the last of the beautiful summer weather before it’s all gone.  Well maybe you can have your cake, and eat it too (or at least, some of it).

I stumbled across an interesting article in the Montreal Gazette about how to turn your back yard into your office (or how to turn your office into your back yard?). It covers how to easily meet your office needs with solutions that can weather the heat and even the rain. It remcommends what furniture to use, and how to handle sensitive electronic technology.

Take a look and let me know if it gives you any good ideas. Or if you have any new ones to add!

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting, work outdoors, work from home, work at home moms

Do you bring your laptop to long team meetings and try to monitor emails during topics that aren’t so important to you? If you frequently work from home or you are a remote worker, flown in for the meeting, stop and think about what opportunities you’re missing by doing this!

Last week my boss had flown in a handful of my teammates located in other parts of the country/world so the whole team could talk about some large projects face to face. We spent two days closeted together in a conference room going through all our services and discussing how they were impacted by these projects and what we needed to do.

I noticed that my teammates paid detailed attention whenever the conversation was related to one of their services. But as soon as we started talking about a service unrelated to their own, their heads would go down as their eyes fixed on their laptop screens and their fingers clacked away furiously on their keyboards.

Who can blame them? Our day-to-day jobs don’t go away when we’re in these kinds of meetings. The emails and action items don’t stop. While we may all have out-of-office messages saying we’re tied up these two days and responses will be slow, we don’t want to spend our evenings or the following work day trying to dig our way out of our overflowing inboxes

However, there’s an opportunity cost to this. Sure, those folks who are located with the core team and who come into the office every day may be well plugged-in to what all their teammates are doing. But for the people visiting from out of town, and for the telecommuters, this is a perfect opportunity to get some more detailed exposure to what else is going on in their team and learn more about some of the activities, challenges, etc of their peers.

This kind of exposure, while seeming unimportant in the short term, can be valuable down the road. You get the opportunity to learn from your peers – for instance, if there are issues they are dealing with that you struggle with too, you can contact them later to compare notes. And it increases the opportunity for cross-collaboration and integration of projects down the line if you have a better big picture of everything that’s going on in your team.

So I made a real effort to stay tuned-in to what my coworkers were discussing, even if it wasn’t related to my services. The coffee helped! Sure, I paid for it in my workload after the 2-day meeting was over. My cost was an over-full inbox the next day. But that’s no different from when you’re away on vacation and the workload is piling up. (At least I *hope* you let the work pile up when you’re on vacation and you’re not sneaking into your hotel room to check emails while your spouse is lying on the beach.)

So telecommuters and remote workers, next time you’re face-to-face with your team and tempted to sneak in some time working on your email, consider the opportunity you’re missing. Grab an extra cup of coffee and pay attention to what your peers have to say!

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting, remote workers, work from home, work at home moms

Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve had a busy time lately. Not only have my in-laws been visiting for the last week, we also had my daughter’s 2nd birthday party, and I had a 2-day face-to-face I had to go into the office for.

So life has been busy. Thank goodness for telecommuting. The kids had Monday and Tuesday off from daycare last week. Monday was a holiday for me and the hubby so no problem. But Tuesday wasn’t.

My in-laws agreed to watch the kids for us. It was nice to be able to work from home and be around for questions. I was able to get a full day’s work in, but I was also able to take breaks, emerge from the office, and check in with my in-laws. I was able to help them figure out lunch for the kids, put my daughter down for her nap (she just switched from her crib to a toddler bed, and she’s having a little difficulty with the transition) and help them work the TV system to turn on my son’s shows while his sister napped.

No way I could have done all that from the office, over the phone or with written instructions!

On another note, I had an interesting epiphony during the team face-to-face. I will write more about that later this week. Stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, telecommute, child care, work from home

Finding a telecommuting position can be hard. My first recommendation is to arrange with your boss to allow you to telecommute in your current position.

However, that may not be an option - either because your boss won’t let you or because you don’t have a job. If you’re worried about your boss not letting you, there are a number of things you can do to increase your odds when you approach him. I will blog about these ideas soon. In fact, if you want some advice, click on this blog entry and post a comment at the bottom - let me know you’re interested and I’ll make sure I get the info up soon.

For those that are trying to find a telecommute position, there’s a lot to dig through. For one, you have to watch out for the scams. You have to find a real, legitimate job offer. I just read a great post on obzokee.com where Chris gives some detailed suggestions on what to look for. Here are his tips, or read the whole post for yourself:

1. Visit the job boards on a regular basis, so you can apply for the vacant jobs as soon as they’re posted. You can start at : WFHMarket.com and Genuinejobs.com.

2. Use internet forums and discussion groups to get feedback on possible scams and to ask questions relating to working from home. People who visit these forums are very friendly and are always willing to assist. On many occasions I’ve seen vacant jobs posted on these forums as well. If you need help finding forums, simply go to Google.com and try searching “work at home forums” “telecommute forums” and/or “telecommute forums”.

3. If you do find something you’re interested in do some research on the company. Again, post questions in forums and also check the BBB to see if there’s anything listed on the company. Google.com is also a great place to start your investigation.

4. NEVER pay for a job or the promise of a job.

Thanks Chris!

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting, job search, work at home